{"id":3385,"date":"2012-11-01T22:24:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T04:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2012-11-02T04:58:42","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T10:58:42","slug":"greek-jews-battle-golden-dawn-neo-nazi-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/greek-jews-battle-golden-dawn-neo-nazi-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek Jews battle Golden Dawn, neo-Nazi party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GAVIN RABINOWITZ<\/p>\n<p>ATHENS, Greece (JTA) \u2014 For every Jew who lives in Greece, there are about 100 Greeks who voted for the country\u2019s neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, last spring. The party now controls 18 seats in Greece\u2019s 300-member parliament, and its popularity is rising rapidly: A poll taken in October showed that if elections were held again today, Golden Dawn would capture 14 percent of the vote, making it Greece\u2019s third-largest party. A September poll showed that 22 percent of Greeks have positive views of Golden Dawn, up from 12 percent in May.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3386\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3386\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3386 lazyload\" title=\"Golden Dawn\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn.jpg 1276w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/168;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3386\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3386 \" title=\"Golden Dawn\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden-Dawn.jpg 1276w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3386\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Greece&#39;s Golden Dawn party leader Nikolaos G. Michaloliakos speaking in a political ad, April 2012. (YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>With its swastika-like flag, gangs of black-shirted thugs attacking immigrants and its ideology of Greek racial superiority, Golden Dawn\u2019s sudden and significant rise has prompted condemnations from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>It also has put many of Greece\u2019s 5,000 Jews on edge. Community leaders already have begun a campaign to educate Greeks about the dangers of allowing a neo-Nazi party to flourish, and Greek Jews are trying to figure out what more they can do to arrest Golden Dawn\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe definitely think that a very basic tool to promoting social equality and combating the rise of extremists like Golden Dawn is educating schoolchildren,\u201d said Zanet Battinou, director the Jewish Museum of Greece.<\/p>\n<p>The museum and its programs teach visiting schoolchildren about Greece\u2019s Jewish community, its heritage and, in particular, about the Holocaust, in which more than 80 percent of Greek Jews were murdered.<\/p>\n<p>The museum also has set up a traveling exhibition, works extensively with Greek schools to aid in teaching about the Holocaust and, together with the Israeli Embassy in Athens, sent 24 Greek teachers to the International School for Holocaust Studies at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt certainly is a very strong weapon against misinformation, bigotry and prejudice,\u201d Battinou said. \u201cBut the biggest benefit is, and should be, to teach young people to think for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Golden Dawn mostly has targeted those it holds responsible for Greece\u2019s dire economic plight and its international humiliation &#8212; immigrants from Asia and Africa, politicians and the Communist opposition &#8212; the party also has a clear anti-Semitic streak.<\/p>\n<p>Golden Dawn\u2019s leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, denies there were gas chambers or ovens at Nazi death camps and has a penchant for giving the Nazi salute. Statements from the party refer to Israel as a \u201cZionist terror state.\u201d Party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, who made international headlines when he punched a female Communist Party member in the face during a live television debate, recently read out a passage from the anti-Semitic forgery \u201cThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion\u201d in parliament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must react to everything they do against the Jews,\u201d David Saltiel, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told JTA. \u201cWe protest, we fight in every instance where there are displays of anti-Semitism and will not let ourselves fall down. We take every measure we can within the spirit of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3391\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3391\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3391 lazyload\" title=\"Golden_Dawn_logo\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo.jpg 620w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3391\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3391 \" title=\"Golden_Dawn_logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Golden_Dawn_logo.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The swastika-like logo of the Golden Dawn party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Greek Jewish community is also trying to maintain a dialogue with the government and mainstream political parties and urging them to take a stronger stand, according to Saltiel.<\/p>\n<p>Outside Jewish groups are stepping in, too. In response to the rise of Golden Dawn, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which assists Greece\u2019s 500 Holocaust survivors, has begun funding the Greek Jewish museum\u2019s traveling exhibition on anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor survivors that went through what these people went through during the war, many of whom were saved by the underground efforts of other Greeks, they never expected that in their lifetime they would see Greek support for a Nazi-like party,\u201d said the Claims Conference&#8217;s chairman, Julius Berman. \u201cThere must be complete horror.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Golden Dawn\u2019s political ascendance has been fast and furious, propelled by a Greek public weary of five years of economic depression, massive unemployment and what they see as Greece\u2019s international humiliation and its betrayal by the politicians who got them into this mess. Similar factors led to Hitler\u2019s rise in Weimar Germany, some have noted.<\/p>\n<p>For years, Golden Dawn had lingered as a tiny party on the fringes of society. In the 2009 elections, the party won just 0.29 percent of the vote. But in elections in May and a do-over in June, the party captured just under 7 percent of the vote. Its popularity has been growing ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Given the relatively small size of the country\u2019s Jewish community, Jewish leaders are aware that their efforts may appear like a drop in an ocean of hate and that they alone cannot fight Golden Dawn\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not possible for only a few thousand remaining Jews. There must be mainstream involvement or a big segment of the mainstream like newspapers, universities and the politicians,\u201d said Hagen Fleischer, the emeritus professor of history at the University of Athens and an expert on the Holocaust and the German occupation of Greece.<br \/>\nThe Austrian-born Fleischer, who is not Jewish, organized a public event aimed at countering the growth of Golden Dawn, bringing Holocaust survivors to tell their stories. But, he says, \u201cYou cannot solve the problem of Golden Dawn only with enlightenment or telling people there really was a Holocaust.\u201d<br \/>\nInitially, many Greeks and leading politicians downplayed the party\u2019s rise, dismissing it as a knee-jerk reaction from Greeks looking for a shortcut out of the country\u2019s economic crisis but who did not really identify with Golden Dawn\u2019s fascist ideology.<\/p>\n<p>As Golden Dawn has become more brazen, violently attacking migrants, gays and Communists, disrupting theater productions deemed blasphemous and holding racist events like setting up a blood bank for pure Greek blood only, Greek political leaders have begun to mount a stronger response.<\/p>\n<p>In October, parliament voted to lift the immunity of three Golden Dawn members of parliament accused of attacking immigrants. Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias announced the creation of a special police unit to deal with racist violence &#8212; a welcome move after repeated allegations that police were deliberately turning a blind eye to, or sometimes even colluding with, the black-shirt gangs in their attacks on foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most significantly, the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymous II, spoke out. \u201cThe Church loves all people, including those who are black, white or non-Christians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Saltiel says these developments give him a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf all the political groups, the church, the universities and the media come together to try and put things in the right way, I think that this will change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, the Jewish community will keep up its efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI frankly don\u2019t know if it is enough, but it is something,\u201d Battinou said. \u201cAnd several small sources of something will hopefully amount to something far-reaching in this dark tunnel of racism and anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Greek%20Jews%20battle%20Golden%20Dawn%2C%20neo-Nazi%20party%20\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[553,1067,1068,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3385"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3392,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions\/3392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}